1

one

一

In Chinese characters, the number one is laid on its side, unlike the Roman numeral I which stands upright. As you would expect, it is written from left to right. [1]

一

As a primitive element, the key-word meaning is discarded, since it is too abstract to be of much help. Instead, the single horizontal stroke takes on the meaning of floor or ceiling, depending on its position: if it stands above another primitive, it means ceiling; if below, floor.

2

two

二

Like the Roman numeral II, which reduplicates the numeral I, the kanji for two is a simple reduplication of the horizontal stroke that means one. The order of writing goes from above to below, with the first stroke slightly shorter. [2]

丁 七

3

three

三

And like the Roman numeral iii, which triples the numeral i, the kanji for three simply triples the single horizontal stroke. In writing it, think of “1 + 2 = 3” (一 + 二 = 三) in order to keep the middle stroke shorter. [3]

万 丈 三

4

four

四

This kanji is composed of two primitive elements, mouth 口 and human legs 儿, both of which we will meet in the coming lessons. Assuming that you already knew how to write this kanji, we will pass over the “story” connected with it until later.

Note how the second stroke is written left-to-right and then top-to-bottom. This is consistent with what we have already seen in the first three numbers and leads us to a general principle that will be helpful when we come to more complicated kanji later on: write north-to-south, west-to-east, northwest-to-southeast. [5]

上 下 不 与 丐

5

five

五

As with four, we shall postpone learning the primitive elements that make up this character. Note how the general principle we just learned in the preceding frame applies to the writing of the character for five. [4]

丑 且 丕 世

6

six

六

The primitives here are top hat and animal legs. Once again, we glide over them until later. [4]

丗 丘 丙 丞

7

seven

七

As with four, we shall postpone learning the primitive elements that make up this character. Note how the general principle we just learned in the preceding frame applies to the writing of the character for five. [4]

Note that the first stroke “cuts” through the second. This distinguishes seven from the character for spoon 匕 (frame 476), in which the horizontal stroke stops short. [2]

両 並

As a primitive, this form takes on the meaning of diced, i.e., “cut” into little pieces, consistent both with the way the character is written and with its association with the kanji for cut 切 to be learned in a later lesson (frame 89).

8

eight

八

Just as the Arabic numeral “8” is composed of a small circle followed by a larger one, so the kanji for eight is composed of a short line followed by a longer line, slanting towards it but not touching it. And just as the “lazy 8” ∞ is the mathematical symbol for “infinity,” so the expanse opened up below these two strokes is associated by the Japanese with the sense of an infinite expanse or something “all-encompassing.” [2]

丨 个

9

nine

九

If you take care to remember the stroke order of this kanji, you will not have trouble later keeping it distinct from the kanji for power 力 (frame 922). [2]

中丱

As a primitive, we shall use this kanji to mean baseball team or simply baseball. The meaning, of course, is derived from the nine players who make up a team.

10

ten

十

Turn this character 45º either way and you have the X used for the Roman numeral ten. [2]

串 丶

As a primitive, this character sometimes keeps its meaning of ten and sometimes signifies needle, this latter derived from the kanji for needle 針 (frame 292). Since the primitive is used in the kanji itself, there is no need to worry about confusing the two. In fact, we shall be following this procedure regularly.

11

mouth

口

Like several of the first characters we shall learn, the kanji for mouth is a clear pictograph. Since there are no circular shapes in the kanji, the square must be used to depict the circle. [3]

丸 丹 主

As a primitive, this form also means mouth. Any of the range of possible images that the word suggests—an opening or entrance to a cave, a river, a bottle, or even the largest hole in your head—can be used for the primitive meaning.

12

day

日

This kanji is intended to be a pictograph of the sun. Recalling what we said in the previous frame about round forms, it is easy to detect the circle and the big smile that characterize our simplest drawings of the sun—like those yellow badges with the words, “Have a nice day!” [4]

丼 丿 乂 乃

Used as a primitive, this kanji can mean sun or day or a tongue wagging in the mouth. This latter meaning, incidentally, derives from an old character outside the standard list meaning something like “sayeth” and written almost exactly the same, except that the stroke in the middle does not touch the right side (曰, frame 620).

13

month

月

This character is actually a picture of the moon, with the two horizontal lines representing the left eye and mouth of the mythical “man in the moon.” (Actually, the Japanese see a hare in the moon, but it is a little farfetched to find one in the kanji.) And one month, of course, is one cycle of the moon. [4]

久 之 乍 乎

As a primitive element, this character can take on the sense of moon, flesh, or part of the body. The reasons for the latter two meanings will be explained in a later chapter.

14

rice field

田

Another pictograph, this kanji looks like a bird’s-eye view of a rice field divided into four plots. Be careful when writing this character to get the order of the strokes correct. You will find that it follows perfectly the principle stated in frame 4. [5]

乏 乕 乖 乗 乘

When used as a primitive element, the meaning of rice field is most common, but now and again it will take the meaning of brains from the fact that it looks a bit like that tangle of gray matter nestled under our skulls.

15

eye

目

Here again, if we round out the corners of this kanji and curve the middle strokes upwards and downwards respectively, we get something resembling an eye. [5]

乙 九 乞 也 乢

As a primitive, the kanji keeps its sense of eye, or to be more specific, an eyeball. When placed in the surroundings of a complex kanji, the primitive will sometimes be turned on its side like this: 罒.

16

old

古

The primitive elements that compose this character are ten and mouth, but you may find it easier to remember it as a pictograph of a tombstone with a cross on top. Just think back to one of those graveyards you have visited, or better still, used to play in as a child, with old inscriptions on the tombstones.

This departure from the primitive elements in favor of a pictograph will take place now and again at these early stages, and almost never after that. So you need not worry about cluttering up your memory with too many character “drawings.” [5]

亂 亅 了 予 争

Used as a primitive element, this kanji keeps its key-word sense of old, but care should be taken to make that abstract notion as graphic as possible.

17

I

吾

There are a number of kanji for the word I, but the others tend to be more specific than this one. The key word here should be taken in the general psychological sense of the “perceiving subject.” Now the one place in our bodies that all five senses are concentrated in is the head, which has no less than five mouths: 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and 1 mouth. Hence, five mouths = I. [7]

亊 事 二 于 云 互 五

18

risk

冒

Remember when you were young and your mother told you never to look directly into the sun for fear you might burn out your eyes? Probably you were foolish enough to risk a quick glance once or twice; but just as probably, you passed that bit of folk wisdom on to someone else as you grew older. Here, too, the kanji that has a sun above and an eye right below looking up at it has the meaning of risk (see frame 12). [9]

井 亘 亙 些 亡

19

companion

朋

The first companion that God made, as the Bible story goes, was Eve. Upon seeing her, Adam exclaimed, “Flesh of my flesh!” And that is precisely what this kanji says in so many strokes. [8]

亢 交 亥 亦 亭

20

bright

明

Among nature’s bright lights, there are two that the biblical myth has God set in the sky: the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule the night. Each of them has come to represent one of the common connotations of this key word: the sun, the bright insight of the clear thinker, and the moon, the bright intuition of the poet and the seer (see frame 13). [8]

亶 仂

21

chant

唱

This one is easy! You have one mouth making no noise (the choirmaster) and two mouths with wagging tongues (the minimum for a chorus). So think of the key word, chant, as monastery singing and the kanji is yours forever (see frame 11). [11]

仇 从 他

22

sparkle

晶

What else can the word sparkle suggest if not a diamond? And if you’ve ever held a diamond up to the light, you will have noticed how every facet of it becomes like a miniature sun. This kanji is a picture of a tiny sun in three places (that is, “everywhere”), to give the sense of something that sparkles on all sides. Just like a diamond. In writing the primitive elements three times, note again how the rule for writing given in frame 4 holds true not only for the strokes in each individual element but also for the disposition of the elements in the character as a whole. [12]

仝 代 仮

23

goods

品

As in the character for sparkle, the triplication of a single element in this character indicates “everywhere” or “heaps of.” When we think of goods in modern industrial society, we think of what has been mass-produced—that is to say, produced for the “masses” of open mouths waiting like fledglings in a nest to “consume” whatever comes their way. [9]

件 仼 伃

24

spine

呂

This character is rather like a picture of two of the vertebrae in the spine linked by a single stroke. [7]

伉 伊 伍 伎 伏 伐 休

25

prosperous

昌

What we mentioned in the previous two frames about 3 of something meaning “everywhere” or “heaps of” was not meant to be taken lightly. In this kanji we see two suns, one atop the other, which, if we are not careful, is easily confused in memory with the three suns of sparkle. Focus on the number this way: since we speak of prosperous times as sunny, what could be more prosperous than a sky with two suns in it? Just be sure to actually see them there. [8]

伯 伸

26

early

早

This kanji is actually a picture of the first flower of the day, which we shall, in defiance of botanical science, call the sun-flower, since it begins with the element for sun and is held up on a stem with leaves (the pictographic representation of the final two strokes). This time, however, we shall ignore the pictograph and imagine sunflowers with needles for stems, which can be plucked and used to darn your socks.

The sense of early is easily remembered if one thinks of the sunflower as the early riser in the garden, because the sun, showing favoritism towards its namesake, shines on it before all the others (see frame 10). [6]

伽 佃 但

As a primitive element, this kanji takes the meaning of sun-flower, which was used to make the abstract key word early more graphic.

27

rising sun

旭

This character is a sort of nickname for the Japanese flag with its well-known emblem of the rising sun. If you can picture two seams running down that great red sun, and then imagine it sitting on a baseball bat for a flagpole, you have a slightly irreverent—but not altogether inaccurate—picture of how the sport has caught on in the Land of the Rising Sun. [6]

佇 位 低 住 佐 佑

28

generation

世

We generally consider one generation as a period of thirty (or ten plus ten plus ten) years. If you look at this kanji in its completed form—not in its stroke order—you will see three tens. When writing it, think of the lower horizontal lines as “addition” lines written under numbers to add them up. Thus: ten “plus” ten “plus” ten = thirty. Actually, it’s a lot easier doing it with a pencil than reading it in a book. [5]

体 何 佖 佗 余

29

stomach

胃

You will need to refer back to frames 13 and 14 here for the special meaning of the two primitive elements that make up this character: flesh (part of the body) and brain. What the kanji says, if you look at it, is that the part of the body that keeps the brain in working order is the stomach. To keep the elements in proper order, when you write this kanji think of the brain as being “held up” by the flesh. [9]

佞 佳

30

nightbreak

旦

While we normally refer to the start of the day as “daybreak,” Japanese commonly refers to it as the “opening up of night” into day. Hence the choice of this rather odd key word, nightbreak. The single stroke at the bottom represents the floor (have a peek again at frame 1) or the horizon over which the sun is poking its head. [5]

佼 使

31

gall bladder

胆

The pieces in this character should be easily recognizable: on the left, the element for part of the body, and on the right, the character for nightbreak, which we have just met. What all of this has to do with the gall bladder is not immediately clear. But all we need to do is give a slight twist to the traditional biblical advice about not letting the sun set on your anger (which ancient medicine associated with the choler or bile that the gall bladder is supposed to filter out), and change it to “not letting the night break on your anger” (or your gall)—and the work of remembering the kanji is done. And the improvement is not a bad piece of advice in its own right, since anger, like so many other things, can often be calmed by letting the sun set on it and then “sleeping it off.” [9]

侊 侒

32

span

亘

“Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset…” goes the song of the Fiddler on the Roof. You can almost see the journey of the sun as it moves from one horizon (the floor) to its noonday heights in the sky overhead (ceiling) and then disappears over the other horizon—day after day, marking the span of our lives. [6]

侔 供 依

33

concave

凹

You couldn’t have asked for a better key word for this kanji! Just have a look at it: a perfect image of a concave lens (remembering, of course, that the kanji square off rounded things), complete with its own little “cave.” Now all you have to do is learn how to write it. [5]

侠 価 侫 侭 侮

34

convex

凸

Maybe this helps you see how the Japanese have no trouble keeping convex distinct from concave. Note the odd feeling of the third stroke. If it doesn’t feel all that strange now, by the time you are done with this book, it will. There are very few times you will have to write it. [5]

侯 侵 侶 便 係

*

walking stick

丨

This primitive element is a picture of just what it looks like: a cane or walking stick. It carries with it the connotations of lameness and whatever else one associates with the use of a cane. Rarely—but very rarely—it will be laid on its side. Whenever this occurs, it will always be driven through the middle of some other primitive element. In this way, you need not worry about confusing it with the primitive meanings of one. [1]

促

*

a drop of



The meaning of this primitive is obvious from the first moment you look at it, though just what it will be a drop of will differ from case to case. The important thing is not to think of it as something insignificant like a “drop in the bucket” but as something so important that it can change the whole picture—like a drop of arsenic in your mother-in-law’s coffee. [1]

俄 倅

In general, it is written from right to left, but there are times when it can be slanted left to right. At other times it can be stretched out a bit. (In cases where you have trouble remembering this, it may help to think of it as an eyedropper dripping drops of something or other.) Examples will follow in this lesson.

35

olden times

旧

A walking stick is needed for days of olden times, since days, too, get old—at least insofar as we refer to them as the “good old days.” The main thing here is to think of “good old days” when you hear the key word olden times. The rest will take care of itself. [5]

俉 俐

36

oneself

自

You can think of this kanji as a stylized pictograph of the nose, that little drop that Mother Nature set between your eyes. The Japanese refer to themselves by pointing a finger at their nose—giving us an easy way to remember the kanji for oneself. [6]

俑 俔 俗 俘 俚 俛

37

white

白

The color white is a mixture of all the primary colors, both for pigments and for light, as we see when a prism breaks up the rays of the sun. Hence, a single drop of sun spells white. [5]

保 俟 信 俣 俤

As a primitive, this character can either retain its meaning of white or take the more graphic meaning of a white bird or dove. This latter stems from the fact that it appears at the top of the kanji for bird, which we shall get to later (frame 2091).

38

hundred

百

The Japanese refer to a person’s 99th birthday as a “white year” because white is the kanji you are left with if you subtract one from a hundred. [6]

俥 修 俯 俳 俵 俶

39

in

中

The elements here are a walking stick and a mouth. Remember the trouble your mother had getting medicine in your mouth? Chances are it crossed her mind more than once to grab something handy, like your grandfather’s walking stick, to pry open your jaws while she performed her duty. Keep the image of getting something in from the outside, and the otherwise abstract sense of this key word should be a lot easier than trying to spoon castor oil into a baby’s mouth. [4]

俸 俺 俾 俿

40

thousand

千

This kanji is almost too simple to pull apart, but for the sake of practice, have a look at the eyedropper above and the ten below. Now put the elements together by thinking of squeezing two more zeros out of an eyedropper alongside the number ten to make it a thousand. [3]

倅 倆 倉

41

tongue

舌

The primitive for mouth and the character for thousand naturally form the idea of tongue if one thinks of a thousand mouths able to speak the same language, or as we say, “sharing a common tongue.” It is easy to see the connection between the idiom and the kanji if you take its image literally: a single tongue being passed around from mouth to mouth. [6]

個 倍 倏 們 倒 倔

42

measuring box

升

This is the character for the little wooden box that the Japanese use for measuring things, as well as for drinking saké out of. Simply imagine the outside as spiked with a thousand sharp needles, and the quaint little measuring box becomes a drinker’s nightmare!

Be very careful when you write this character not to confuse it with the writing of thousand. The reason for the difference gives us a chance to clarify another general principle of writing that supersedes the one we mentioned in frame 4: when a single stroke runs vertically through the middle of a character, it is written last. [4]

倖 候 倚 倞

43

rise up

昇

Our image here is made up of two primitive elements: a sun and a measuring box. Just as the sun can be seen rising up in the morning from—where else—the Land of the Rising Sun, this kanji has the sun rising up out of a Japanese measuring box—the “measuring box of the rising-up sun.” [8]

倣 倨

44

round

丸

We speak of “round numbers,” or “rounding a number off,” meaning to add an insignificant amount to bring it to the nearest 10. For instance, if you add just a wee bit, the tiniest drop, to nine, you end up with a round number. [3]

倩 倪 倫

As a primitive, this element takes the meaning of a fat man. Think of a grotesquely fat man whose paunch so covers the plate that he is always getting hit by the pitch. Hence a round baseball player becomes a fat man.

45

measurement

寸

This kanji actually stood for a small measurement used prior to the metric system, a bit over an inch in length, and from there acquired the sense of measurement. In the old system, it was one-tenth of a shaku (whose kanji we shall meet in frame 1151). The picture, appropriately, represents one drop of a ten (with a hook!). [3]

倬 倭 倶

As a primitive, we shall use this to mean glue or glued to. There is no need to devise a story to remember this, since the primitive will appear so often you would have to struggle hard not to remember it.

46

elbow

肘

Instead of the familiar “grease” we usually associate with the elbow of someone hard at work, the kanji gives us a part of the body that has been glued to its task. [7]

魴 ＂

47

specialty

専

Ten . . . rice fields . . . glue. That is how one would read the primitive elements of this kanji from top to bottom. Now if we make a simple sentence out of these elements, we get: “Ten rice fields glued together.”

A specialty, of course, refers to one’s special “field” of endeavor or competence. In fact, few people remain content with a single specialty and usually extend themselves in other fields as well. This is how we come to get the picture of ten fields glued together to represent a specialty. [9]

倹 偀 偂 偃 偆 假 偈 偉 偏

48

Dr.

博

At the left we have the needle; at the right, the kanji for specialty, plus an extra drop at the top. Think of a Dr. who is a specialist with a needle (an acupuncturist) and let the drop at the top represent the period at the end of Dr.

In principle we are trying to avoid this kind of device, which plays on abstract grammatical conventions; but I think you will agree, after you have had occasion to use the right side of this kanji in forming other kanji, that the exception is merited in this case. [12]

嘉 嘔 嘖 嘗 嘘 嘛 嘩嘯嘱 嘲 嘴 嘶

The primitive form of this kanji eliminates the needle on the left and gets the meaning of an acupuncturist.

*

divining rod

卜

This is a picture of a divining rod, composed of a drop and a walking stick, but easy enough to remember as a pictograph. Alternately, you can think of it as a magic wand. In either case, it should suggest images of magic or fortune-telling.

Nowadays it is written in the stroke order given here when it appears as a primitive, but until recently the order was often reversed (in order to instill correct habits for more stylized calligraphy). [2]

偐 偕

Although it falls outside of the list of general-use kanji, this element is actually a kanji in its own right, having virtually the same meaning as the kanji in the next frame.

49

fortune-telling

占

This is one of those kanji that is a real joy of simplicity: a divining rod with a mouth—which translate directly into fortune-telling.

Note how the movement from top to bottom (the movement in which the kanji are written) is also the order of the elements which make up our story and of the key word itself: first divining rod, then mouth. This will not always be possible, but where it is, memory has almost no work at all to do. [5]

偖 做 停 健 偬

50

above

上

The two directions, above and below, are usually pointed at with the finger. But the characters do not follow that custom, so we have to choose something else, easily remembered. The primitives show a magic wand standing above a floor—“magically,” you might say. Anyway, go right on to the next frame, since the two belong together and are best remembered as a unit, just as the words above and below suggest each other. [3]

偰 偲 側

51

below

下

Here we see our famous miraculous magic wand hanging, all on its own, below the ceiling, as you probably already guessed would happen. In addition to giving us two new kanji, the two shapes given in this and the preceding frame also serve to fix the use of the primitives for ceiling and floor, by drawing our attention successively to the line standing above and below the primitive element to which it is related. [3]

偵 偶 偸

52

eminent

卓

The word eminent suggests a famous or well-known person. So all you need to do—given the primitives of a magic wand and a sunflower—is to think of the world’s most eminent magician as one who uses a sunflower for a magic wand (like a flower-child who goes around turning the world into peace and love). [8]

偽 傀 傅 傍 傑 傔 傘 備

*

mist



Here is our second example of a primitive composed of other primitives but not itself a kanji. At the bottom is the primitive (also a kanji) for early or sunflower. At the top, a needle. Conveniently, mist falls early in the morning, like little needles of rain, to assure that the sunflower blooms early as we have learned it should. [8]

傚 催 傭 傲 傳 傴 債 傷

53

morning

朝

On the right we see the moon fading off into the first light of morning, and to the left, the mist that falls to give nature a shower to prepare it for the coming heat. If you can think of the moon tilting over to spill mist on your garden, you should have no trouble remembering which of all the elements in this story are to serve as primitives for constructing the character. [12]

傷 僉

54

derision

嘲

The bad feeling created by words spoken in derision often leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the one who speaks them, kind of like the foul aftertaste that follows a night before of too much of the wrong stuff—or what we call morning mouth. [15]

魵 ＃

*

animal legs



Like the four that follow it, this primitive is not a kanji in its own right, though it is said to be derived from 八, the character we learned earlier for eight. It always comes at the bottom of the primitive to which it is related. It can mean the legs of any kind of animal: from a grizzly bear’s paws to an octopus’s tentacles to the spindle shanks of a spider. (The one animal not allowed is our friend homo sapiens, whose legs figure in the next frame.) Even where the term “legs” will apply metaphorically to the legs of pieces of furniture, it is best to keep the association with animal legs. (You may review frame 6 here.) [2]

乾 亀

*

human legs

儿

Notice how these human legs are somewhat shapelier and more highly evolved than those of the so-called “lower animals.” The one on the left, drawn first, is straight; while the one on the right bends gracefully and ends with a hook. Though they are not likely to suggest the legs of any human you know, they do have something of the look of someone out for a stroll, especially if you compare them to animal legs.

If you had any trouble with the kanji for the number four, now would be the time to return to it (frame 4). [2]

乱 乳

*

wind

几

This primitive gets its name from the full kanji for the wind (frame 563). It is called an “enclosure” because other elements are often drawn in the middle of it, though it can also be compressed together so that there is no room for anything in it. The main thing to remember when writing this element is that the second stroke bends outwards, like a gust of wind blown from above. In addition to the basic meaning of wind, we shall also have occasion to use the image of a weather vane. The derivation is obvious. [2]

僑 僕

*

bound up

勹

Like wind, the element meaning bound up is also an enclosure that can wrap itself around other elements or be compressed when there is nothing to enclose. When this latter happens—usually because there is not enough room—and it is set on top, the little hook at the end is dropped off, like this: 聴.

The sense of bound up is that of being “tied and gagged” or wrapped up tightly. If you have trouble remembering when it serves as an enclosure (with the hook) and when not (without the hook), you might think of the former as a chain and the latter as a rope. [2]

僖 僘

*

horns

僞

This primitive element always appears at the top of the element to which it is related, and is always attached, or almost attached, to the first horizontal line to come under it. The horns can never simply be left hanging in the air. When there is no line available, an extra horizontal stroke (like a one) is added. The final kanji of this lesson gives an example.

The meaning of this element is wide enough to embrace the horns of bulls, rams, billy goats, and moose, but not the family of musical instruments. As with other elements with such “open” meanings, it is best to settle on one that you find most vivid and stick with that image consistently. [2]

僚 僞

55

only

只

When we run across abstract key words like this one, the best way to get an image it to recall some common but suggestive phrase in which the word appears. For instance, we can think of the expression “it’s the only one of its kind.” Then we imagine a barker at a side-show advertising some strange pac-man like creature he has inside his tent, with only a gigantic mouth and two wee animal legs. [5]

僣 僥 僧 僭 僮

56

shellfish

貝

To remember the primitive elements that make up this kanji, an eye and animal legs, you might be tempted to think of it as a pictograph of a shellfish with its ridged shell at the top and two little legs sticking out of the bottom. But that might not help you recall later just how many ridges to put on the shell. Better to imagine a freakish shellfish with a single, gigantic eye roaming the beaches on its slender little legs, scaring the wits out of the sunbathers. [7]

僴 僵 價 僻 儀 儁 儂

When used as a primitive, in addition to shells, the meanings oyster and clam will often come in handy.

57

pop song

唄

There is a lot of money to be made if one’s songs are “popular.” This is depicted here as a stream of clams spewing out of the mouth of someone performing a pop song. [10]

鮃 ＂

58

upright

貞

Now take the last primitive, the shellfish, and set a magic wand over it, and you have the kanji for upright. After all, the clam and the oyster are incapable of walking upright. It would take a magician with his wand to pull off such a feat—which is precisely what we have in this kanji. [9]

儉 償

59

employee

員

How do we get a mouth over a shellfish to mean an employee? Simple. Just remember the advice new employees get about keeping their mouths shut and doing their job, and then make that more graphic by picturing an office building full of white-collar workers scurrying around with clams pinched to their mouths. [10]

儲 允

60

post a bill

貼

The key word in this frame has do with posting bills to a billboard. In this case, the billboard is standing at the exit to a Chinese restaurant displaying the latest alternative to the traditional fortune-telling cookies. Look closely and you will see rows of leftover shells of clams with little slips of paper sticking out of them posted to the billboard.[12]

鮏 ＄

61

see

見

The elements that compose the character for see are the eye firmly fixed to a pair of human legs. Surely, somewhere in your experience, there is a vivid image just waiting to be dragged up to help you remember this character…. [7]

元 兄 充 兆 兇 先 光

62

newborn babe

児

The top part of the kanji in this frame, you will remember, is the character for olden times, those days so old they needed a walking stick to get around. Western mythical imagination has old “Father Time” leaning on his sickle with a newborn babe crawling around his legs, the idea being that the circle of birth-and-death goes on.

This is the first of three times that the kanji for olden times will appear in this book as a primitive element in another kanji, so try to make the most of it. [7]

兊 兎 児 兒

63

beginning

元

“In the beginning…” starts that marvelous shelf of books we call the Bible. It talks about how all things were made, and tells us that when the Creator came to humanity she made two of them, man and woman. While we presume she made two of every other animal as well, we are not told as much. Hence we need only two and a pair of human legs come to the kanji that means beginning. [4]

兔 党 兜 兢

64

page

頁

What we have to do here is turn a shellfish into a page of a book. The one at the top tells us that we only get a rather short book, in fact a book of only one page.

Imagine a title printed on the shell of an oyster, let us say “Pearl of Wisdom,” and then open the quaint book to its one and only page, on which you find a single, radiant drop of wisdom, one of the masterpiece poems of nature. [9]

兤 入 全 兩 兪 八 公 六 兮

As a primitive, this kanji takes the unrelated meaning of a head (preferably one detached from its body), derived from the character for head (frame 1549).

65

stubborn

頑

This character refers to the blockheaded, persistent stubbornness of one who sticks to an idea or a plan just the way it was at the beginning, without letting anything that comes up along the way alter things in the least. The explanation makes “sense,” but is hard to remember because the word “beginning” is too abstract. Back up to the image we used two frames ago—Adam and Eve in their Eden—and try again: The root of all stubbornness goes back to the beginning, with two brothers each stubbornly defending his own way of life and asking their God to bless it favorably. Abel stuck to agriculture, Cain to animal-raising. Picture these two with their giant, swelled heads, each vying for the favors of heaven, a stubborn grimace on their faces. No wonder something unfortunate happened! [13]

具 册

66

mediocre

凡

While we refer to something insignificant as a “drop in the bucket,” the kanji for mediocre suggests the image of a “drop in the wind.” [3]

墮 墲 墳

67

defeat

負

Above we have the condensed form of bound up, and below the familiar shellfish. Now imagine two oysters engaged in shell-to-shell combat, the one who is defeated being bound and gagged with seaweed, the victor towering triumphantly over it. The bound shellfish thus becomes the symbol for defeat. [9]

冏 冗

68

ten thousand

万

Japanese counts higher numbers in units of ten thousand, unlike the West, which advances according to units of one thousand. (Thus, for instance, 40,000 would be read “four ten-thousands” by a Japanese.) Given that the comma is used in larger numbers to bind up a numerical unit of one thousand, the elements for one and bound up naturally come to form ten thousand.

The order of strokes here needs special attention, both because it falls outside the general principles we have learned already, and because it involves writing the element for bound up in an order opposite to the one we learned. If it is any consolation, this happens every time these three strokes come together. [3]

写 冝 冠

69

phrase

句

By combining the two primitives bound up and mouth, it is easy to see how this character can get the meaning of a phrase. After all, a phrase is nothing more than a number of words bound up tightly and neatly so that they will fit in your mouth. [5]

冢 冤 冥 冦 冨

70

texture

肌

Ever notice how the texture of your face and hands is affected by the wind? A day’s skiing or sailing makes them rough and dry, and in need of a good soft cream to soothe the burn. So whenever a part of the body gets exposed to the wind, its texture is affected. (If it is any help, the Latin word hiding inside texture connotes how something is “to the touch.”) [6]

冷 冾

71

decameron

旬

There simply is not a good phrase in English for the block of ten days which this character represents. So we resurrect the classical phrase, decameron, whose connotations the tales of Boccaccio have done much to enrich. Actually, it refers to a journey of ten days taken by a band of people—that is, a group of people bound together for the days of the decameron. [6]

凅 凌

72

ladle

勺

If you want to bind up drops of anything—water, soup, lemonade—you use something to scoop these drops up, which is what we call a ladle. See the last drop left inside the ladle? [3]

働 像

73

bull’s eye

的

The elements white bird and ladle easily suggest the image of a bull’s eye if you imagine a rusty old ladle with a bull’s eye painted on it in the form of a tiny white bird, who lets out a little “peep” every time you hit the target. [8]

凝 処

74

neck

首

Reading this kanji from the top down, we have: horns . . . nose. Together they bring to mind the picture of a moose-head hanging on the den wall, with its great horns and long nose. Now while we would speak of cutting off a moose’s “head” to hang on the wall, the Japanese speak of cutting off its neck. It’s all a matter of how you look at it. Anyway, if you let the word neck conjure up the image of a moose with a very l-o-n-g neck hanging over the fireplace, whose horns you use for a coat-rack and whose nose has spigots left and right for scotch and water, you should have no trouble with the character.

Here we get a good look at what we mentioned when we first introduced the element for horns: that they can never be left floating free and require an extra horizontal stroke to prevent that from happening, as is the case here. [9]

凧 凩 凪 凬 凭 凰 凱 凵 凶

75

fish guts

乙

The kanji shown here actually represents the “second” position in the old Chinese zodiac, which the Japanese still use as an alternate way of enumeration, much the same way that English will revert to Roman numerals. Among its many other meanings are “pure,” “tasteful,” “quaint,” and—get this!—fish guts. Since it is a pictograph of a fishhook, it should not be hard to associate it with the key word. [1]

凸

We will take fishhook and hook as primitive meanings. The shape will rarely be quite the same as that of the kanji. When it appears at the bottom of another primitive, it is straightened out, almost as if the weight of the upper element had bent it out of shape: 肌. And when it appears to the right of another element, the short horizontal line that gets the shape started is omitted and it is stretched out and narrowed, all for reasons of space and aesthetics: 乚. Examples follow.

76

riot

乱

In a riot, manners are laid aside and tempers get short, even in so courtesy-conscious a land as Japan. This kanji shows what happens to a rioting tongue: it gets “barbed” like a fishhook, and sets to attacking the opposition, to hook them as it were. [7]

刃 刄

77

straightaway

直

Begin with the top two primitives, needle and eye. Together they represent the eye of a needle. Below them is a fishhook that has been straightened out and its barb removed so that it can pass through the eye of the needle. [8]

分 切 刈 刊 刋 刎 刑 刔

*

tool



Although this primitive is not very common, it is useful to know, as the following examples will show. Conveniently, it is always drawn at the very bottom of any kanji in which it figures. The first stroke, the horizontal one, is detached from anything above it, but is necessary to distinguish tool from animal legs. The sense of the element is a carpenter’s tool, which comes from its pictographic representation of a small table with legs (make them animal legs if you need a more graphic image), so that any element lying on top of it will come to be viewed as a tool in the hands of a carpenter. [3]

刕 列 初

78

tool

具

Here is the full kanji on which the last frame is based. If you can think of a table full of carpenter’s tools of all sorts, each equipped with its own eye so that it can keep a watch over what you are doing with it, you won’t have trouble later keeping the primitive and the kanji apart. [8]

刪 刮 到 刳

79

true

真

Here again we meet the composite element, eye of the needle, which here combines with tool to give us a measure of what is true and what is not. [10]

制 刷 剃 削

*

by one’s side

聳

This primitive has the look of ten, except that the left stroke is bent down toward the left. It indicates where your hands (your ten fingers) fall when you let them droop: by your side.

The stroke order of this character can be reversed; but whichever stroke is written second, that stroke should be drawn longer than the other. The difference is slight, and all but unnoticeable in printed characters, but it should be learned all the same. [2]

剖 剛 ･ 剥 剩

80

craft

工

The pictograph of an I beam, like the kind that is used in heavy construction work on buildings and bridges, gives us the character for craft in general. [3]

前 剏 剔

As a primitive element, the key word retains the meaning of craft and also takes on the related meanings of I beam and artificial.

81

left

左

By combining the primitive and the kanji of the last two frames and reading the results, we get: by one’s side . . . craft. Conveniently, the left has traditionally been considered the “sinister” side, where dark and occult crafts are cultivated. Note how the second stroke droops over to the left and is longer than the first. [5]

剖 剛 剞 剣 剤

82

right

右

When thinking of the key word right, in order to avoid confusion with the previous frame, take advantage of the double-meaning here, too. Imagine a little mouth hanging down by your side—like a little voice of conscience—telling you the right thing to do. Here the second stroke should reach out to the right and be drawn slightly longer than the first. [5]

剥 剩 剪 副 剰

83

possess

有

The picture here is of someone with a slab of flesh dangling by the side, perhaps from a belt or rope tied around the waist. Think of it as an evil spirit in possession of one’s soul, who can be exorcized only by allowing fresh flesh to hang by one’s side until it begins to putrefy and stink so bad that the demon departs. Take careful note of the stroke order. [6]

剱 割 剳 剴 創 剽

84

bribe

賄

To the left we have the primitive for a shellfish, and to the right the kanji we just learned for possess. Keep the connotation of the last frame for the word possess, and now expand your image of shells to include the ancient value they had as money (a usage that will come in very helpful later on). Now one who is possessed by shells is likely to abandon any higher principles to acquire more and more wealth. These are the easiest ones to bribe with a few extra shells. [13]

劑 加

85

tribute

貢

A tribute has a kind of double-meaning in English: honor paid freely and money collected by coercion. Simply because a ruler bestows a noble name on a deed is hardly any consolation to the masses who must part with their hard-earned money. Little wonder that this ancient craft of getting money by calling it a tribute has given way to a name closer to how it feels to those who pay it: a tax. [10]

助 労

86

paragraph

項

To the right we see a head and to the left an element that means craft. When we think of a paragraph, we immediately think of a heading device to break a text into parts. (Think of the elaborate heads often seen at the start of medieval manuscripts and the task becomes easier still.) Just where and how to do it belongs to the writer’s craft. Hence, we define paragraphing as the “heading craft” to remember this character. [12]

劼 勒

87

sword

刀

Although this kanji no longer looks very much like a sword, it does have some resemblance to the handle of the sword. This is to our advantage, in that it helps us make a distinction between two primitive elements based on this kanji. [2]

動 勗

In the form of the kanji, this primitive means a dagger. When it appears to the right of another element, it is commonly stretched out like this 刂 and takes the sense of a great and flashing saber, a meaning it gets from a character we shall learn later (frame 1801).

88

blade

刃

Think of using a dagger as a razor blade, and it shouldn’t be hard to imagine cutting yourself. See the little drop of blood clinging to the blade? [3]

勘 務 勛

89

cut

切

To the right we see the dagger and next to it the number seven whose primitive meaning we decided would be diced (frame 7). It is hard to think of cutting anything with a knife without imagining one of those skillful Japanese chefs. Only let us say that he has had too much to drink at a party, grabs a dagger lying on the mantelpiece and starts dicing up everything in sight, starting with the hors d’oeuvres and going on to the furniture and the carpets…. [4]

勝 勞 募 勠

90

seduce

召

A sword or dagger posed over a mouth is how the character for “beckoning” is written. The related but less tame key word seduce was chosen because it seemed to fit better with the—how shall we put it?—Freudian implications of the kanji. (Observe if you will that it is not sure whether the long slender object is seducing the small round one or vice versa.) [5]

勣 勲

The primitive meaning remains the same: seduce. Just be sure to associate it with a very concrete image.

91

shining

昭

Let the key word suggest shining one’s shoes, the purpose of which is to seduce the sun down on them for all to see. [9]

勹 匁

92

rule

則

The character depicts a clam alongside a great and flashing saber. Think of digging for clams in an area where there are gaming rules governing how large a find has to be before you can keep it. So you take your trusty saber, which you have carefully notched like a yardstick, crack open a clam, and then measure the poor little beastie to see if it is as long as the rules say it has to be. [9]

匏 匕

*

wealth



To prepare for following frame, we introduce here a somewhat rare primitive meaning wealth. It takes its meaning from the common image of the overwealthy as also being overfed. More specifically, the kanji shows us one single mouth devouring all the harvest of the fields, presumably while those who labor in them go hungry. Think of the phrase exactly as it is written when you draw the character, and the disposition of the elements is easy. [9]

化 匚 匤

93

vice-

副

The key word vice has the sense of someone second-in-command. The great and flashing saber to the right (its usual location, so you need not worry about where to put it from now on) and the wealth on the left combine to create an image of dividing one’s property to give a share to one’s vice-wealthholder. [11]

匿 區 十

94

separate

別

In the Old East, the samurai and his saber were never separated. They were constant companions, like the cowboy of the Old West and his six-shooter. This character depicts what must have been the height of separation-anxiety for a samurai: to be bound up with a rope and unable to get at his saber leaning only a few feet away from him. Look at that mouth bellowing out for shame and sorrow!

Note the order in which the element for tied up is written—just as it had been with the character for ten thousand. [7]

卆 升 午 半

95

street

丁

The picture here is of a street sign on a long pole: Hollywood and Vine, if you please, or any street that immediately conjures up the image of a street sign to you. [2]

卍 卑

Used as a primitive, we change the meaning of the key word and take the shape to signify a nail or a spike. Should it happen, on reviewing, that you find the pictographs get jumbled, then think of jerking a street sign out of the ground and using it as a nail to repair your garage roof.

96

village

町

Street signs standing at the corner of the rice fields depict the village limits. (Remember what was said earlier: when used as a primitive, a kanji may either take its primitive meaning or revert to the original meaning of its key word.) [7]

卒 卓 協 南 単 博 卜

97

can

可

Remember the story about the “Little Engine that Could” when you hear this key word, and the rest is simple. See the determined little locomotive huffing and puffing up the mountain—”I think I can, I think I can...”—spitting railroad spikes out of its mouth as it chews up the line to the top. [5]

卞 占 卦 卩 卮

98

place on the head

頂

The key word is actually a formal metaphor meaning “humble acceptance.” Reading off the two primitive elements in the order of their writing, we have: nail . . . head. As in “hitting the nail on the head.” Now one presumes that most people can handle metaphors, but if you were to run into a dimwit working in a hardware store who only knew the literal meaning of things, and were to ask him, in your best Japanese, to place on your head a nail, he might miss the point and cause you considerable torment. [11]

印 卿

99

all

子

This kanji is a pictograph of a child wrapped up in one of those handy cocoons that Japanese mothers fix to their backs to carry around young children who cannot get around by themselves. The first stroke is like a wee head popping out for air; the second shows the body and legs all wrapped up; and the final stroke shows the arms sticking out to cling to the mother’s neck. [3]

厂 厄 厓

As a primitive, the meaning of child is retained, though you might imagine a little older child, able to run around and get into more mischief.

100

cavity

孔

Probably the one thing most children fear more than anything else is the dentist’s chair. Once a child has seen a dentist holding the x-rays up to the light and heard that ominous word cavity, even though it is not likely to know that the word means “hole” until it is much older, it will not be long before those two syllables get associated with the drill and that row of shiny hooks the dentist uses to torture people who are too small to fight back. [4]

厖 厘 厚 原

101

complete

了

Learn this character by returning to frame 99 and the image given there. The only difference is that the “arms” have been left off (actually, only tucked inside). Thus a child with its arms wrapped up into the back-sack is the picture of a job successfully completed. [2]

厠 厥

102

woman

女

You have probably seen somewhere the form of a squatting woman drawn behind this character, with two legs at the bottom, two arms (the horizontal line) and the head poking out the top. A little farfetched, until you draw the character and feel the grace and flow of the three simple strokes. Remembering the kanji is easy; being able to write it beautifully is another thing. [3]

厦 厨 厩

The primitive meaning is the same: woman.

103

fond

好

The phrase “to be fond of someone” has a natural gentleness about it, and lends a tenderness to the sense of touching by giving us the related term “to fondle.” The character likens it to a woman fondling her child. [6]

厰 厶

104

likeness

如

Pardon me if I revert to the venerable old Dr. Freud again, but his eye for symbolism is often helpful to appreciate things that more earthy imaginations once accepted more freely but that we have learned to cover over with a veneer of etiquette. For instance, the fact that things like the mouth of a cave served as natural ritual substitutes for the opening through which a woman gives birth. Hence, in order to be reborn as an adult, one may have to pass through the psychological equivalent of the womb, that is, something that bears a likeness to the opening of the woman from whom you were born. [6]

參 及

105

mama

母

Look closely at this kanji and you will find the outline of the kanji for woman in it, the second stroke of which has been expanded to make space for the two breasts that make her a mama. Likening this sound to a baby nursing at its mother’s breast has afforded some scholars of comparative linguistics a way to explain the presence of the same word across a wide range of language-groups. [5]

友 双 反 収 叔

As a primitive we shall add the meaning of breasts in accord with the explanation given above. Take careful note of the fact that the form is altered slightly when this kanji serves as a primitive, the final two dots joining together to form a longer stroke. An example follows in the next frame.

106

pierce

貫

If one is asked to think of associations for the word pierce, among the first to come to mind is that of piercing one’s ears to hold earrings, a quite primitive form of self-mutilation that has survived into the 21st century. The kanji here is read, top to bottom: mama . . . oyster. All you need to do is imagine piercing an ear so that it can hold a mother-of-pearl (actually, a mama-of-pearl) you have just wrested from an oyster. [11]

只 召

107

elder brother

兄

By now kanji like this one should “look like” something to you even though it is more of an “ideogram” than a “pictograph.” The large mouth on top and the human legs below almost jump off the page as a caricature of elder brother, the one with the big mouth (or if you prefer a kinder image, the one who “has the say” among all the children). [5]

只 召

As a primitive this character will take the meaning of teenager, in accord with the familiar image of the big mouth and the gangling, clumsy legs.

108

curse

呪

For some reason, the inventor of this kanji associated a curse with the mouth of an elder brother. I leave it to you to decide if he is on the giving or receiving end of the sorcery. [8]

鮑 ％

109

overcome

克

In this frame we get a chance to use the kanji we just learned in its primitive meaning of teenager. The needle on top indicates one of the major problems confronting the teenager growing up in today’s world: drugs. Many of them will fall under the shadow of the needle at some time during those tender years, but only when a whole generation rises up and decides that “We Shall Overcome” the plague, will the needle cease to hang over their heads, as it does in this character. [7]

叮 右

110

little

小

The sense of little in this character is not the same as “a little bit.” That meaning comes in the next frame. Here little means “small” or “tiny.” The image is one of three little drops, the first of which (the one in the middle) is written larger so that the kanji has some shape to it. The point of writing it three times is to rub the point in: little, little, nothing but little. [3]

叶 号 司

The primitive of the same shape keeps the same meaning. Written above a horizontal line, its form is slightly altered, the last two strokes turning inwards like this: .

111

few

少

First we need to look at the fourth stroke, the eyedropper at the bottom that leans towards the left. This happens because a single, isolated drop will never appear beneath its relative primitive in its normal size, for fear it would drop off and get lost. As for the meaning, let the eyedropper indicate a further belittling of what is already little—thus making it a few of something little. [4]

叺 吁 吃 各

112

large

大

Here we have a simple pictograph of a person, taking up the space of an entire character and giving it the sense of large. It should not be too hard to locate the two legs and outstretched arms. [3]

合 吉 吊

As a primitive, we need a different meaning, since the element representing the human person will come up later. Therefore, this shape will become a large dog or, if you prefer, a St. Bernard dog. In frame 253 we will explain why this choice was made.

113

many

多

“Many moons ago,” begins much of Amerindian folklore—a colorful way of saying “Once upon a time” and a great deal of help for remembering this kanji. Here we have two moons (three of them would take us back to the beginning of time, which is further than we want to go), lacking the final stroke because they are partially hidden behind the clouds of time. [6]

名 后 吏 吐 向 君

114

evening

夕

Just as the word evening adds a touch of formality or romanticism to the ordinary word “night,” so the kanji for evening takes the ordinary looking moon in the night sky and has a cloud pass over it (as we saw in the last frame). [3]

吝 吟 吠

The primitive keeps the same meaning and connotation as the kanji.

115

eventide

汐

In the next lesson we will meet the character for morning-tide and the element for drops of water. Meantime we have a perfect blend of picture and idea in this kanji to play on the English word for nightfall, eventide: drops of water inching their way up the shore in the evening. [6]

否 吩 含 听 吭 吮

116

outside

外

On the left, the primitive for evening, and on the right, that for the magic wand. Now, as every magician worth his abracadabra knows, bringing your magic wand out into the evening air makes your magic much more powerful than if you were to stay indoors. Hence, evening and magic wand takes you naturally outside. [5]

吹 吼

117

name

名

Perhaps you have heard of the custom, still preserved in certain African tribes, of a father creeping into the tent or hut of his newborn child on the night of the child’s birth, to whisper into its ear the name he has chosen for it, before making his choice public. It is an impressive naming custom and fits in tidily with the way this character is constructed: evening . . . mouth. At evening time, a mouth pronounces the name that will accompany one throughout life. [6]

呀 呈

*

cliff

厂

This primitive means precisely what it looks like: a steep cliff. You can almost see someone standing at the top looking down into the abyss below. [2]

吋 同

118

stone

石

With a mouth under a cliff, what else could we have here but the entrance to a secret cavern, before which a great stone has been rolled so that none may enter. Perhaps it is the hiding place where Ali Baba and his band of thieves have stored their treasures, in which case that magic word known to every school child who ever delighted over the tales of the Arabian Nights should be enough to push the stone aside. But take care—the cliff is steep, and one slip will send you tumbling down into the ravine below. [5]

This is the one and only time that the second stroke in cliff will reach over to the middle of the horizontal stroke. If you think of the edge jutting outwards (in keeping with the story above), the problem should be taken care of.

呉 告 呎 呑 呟

The stone is a quite common primitive element, which is not restricted to great boulders but used of stones or rocks of any size or shape.

119

resemblance

肖

The word resemblance should suggest, among other things, a son’s resemblance to his father. A “chip off the old block” is the way we often put it, but the character is more simple. It speaks of a little bit of flesh. [7]

呰 呶

When used as a primitive, the sense of resemblance is replaced by that of spark or candle. (If you want an explanation: the kanji for moon also carries a secondary sense of fire, which we omitted because we are keeping that meaning for other primitives.)

120

nitrate

硝

The word nitrate should immediately suggest a beaker of nitric acid, which, as every high-school chemistry student knows, can eat its way through some pretty tough substances. Here we imagine pouring it over a rock and watching the sparks fly as it bores a hole through the rock. [12]

咀 咏

121

smash

砕

We begin with the two elements on the right, baseball and needle. Since they will be coming together from time to time, let us give the two of them the sense of a game of cricket in which a needle is laid across the wicket. Then imagine using a rock for a ball. A smash hit would probably splinter the bat in all directions, and a smashing pitch would do the same with the needle wicket. [9]

咤 咨 咫

122

sand

砂

Good sand for beaches has few or no stones in it. That means that all of us whose feet have been spoiled by too much time in shoes don’t have to watch our step as we cavort about. [9]

咸 品

123

jealous

妬

It should not be hard to leap from the key word to the image of a woman who is jealous of the rock that another woman is sporting on the third finger of her left hand. [8]

厰 

124

plane

削

Long before the invention of the carpenter’s plane, people used knives and machetes (or here, sabers) to smooth out their woodwork. If you have ever seen the process, you will have been amazed at the speed and agility with which the adept can plane a hunk of wood into shape. Indeed, you can almost see the sparks fly from their sabers. [9]

員 哥

125

ray

光

There are really only 2 primitives here, little and human legs. The 4th stroke that separates them is added for reasons of aesthetics. (If that doesn’t make sense, try writing the kanji without it and see how ugly the results look, even to your beginner’s eye.)

Now if you have wondered what those little particles of “dust” are that dance around in the light-rays that come through the window and fall on your desk, try imagining them as little and disembodied human legs, and you should have no trouble with this character. [6]

哦 哨 哩 哭 哮 哲

126

plump

太

“Plump” is one of those delightful English words that almost sound like their meaning. No sooner do you hear it than you think of a round and ample-bodied person falling into a sofa like a large drop of oil plopping into a fishbowl—kerrrr-plump! [4]

哺 哽 哿 唄

127

utensil

器

The picture in this kanji is not a pleasant one. It shows a large and fluffy St. Bernard dog stretched out on a table all stuffed and stewed and garnished with vegetables, its paws in the air and an apple in its mouth. At each corner of the table sits an eager but empty mouth, waiting for the utensils to arrive so the feast can begin. [15]

唏 唕 售 唯 唱 唹 啄

128

stinking

臭

This character is a bit friendlier to the animal world than the last one. Our friend the St. Bernard is alive and well, its nose in the air sniffing suspiciously after something stinking somewhere or other. [9]

啖 啝

129

sniff

H

You have seen those scratch-’n-sniff advertisements for perfumes. This one is for a mouthwash that replaces one stinking odor with another. [12]

鮒 鮓

130

exquisite

妙

The primitive for woman is on the left (there and at the bottom of another primitive is where you will always find her), and to the right the element for few. When we refer to a woman as exquisite, we mean to praise her as the sort of person we meet but few and far between.

If you are interested in etymologies, it might help to recall that the Latin phrase lying at the root of the English word exquisite carries this same sense of “seeking out” the rare from the ordinary. [7]

啼 善

131

focus

省

When we think of focusing on something, we usually take it in a metaphorical sense, though the literal sense is not far behind. It means to block out what is nonessential in order to fix our eye on a few important matters. The kanji suggests picking up a few things and holding them before one’s eye in order to focus on them better. [9]

喊 喜

132

thick

厚

When we refer to someone as thick-skinned or thick-headed, we are usually quick to add—even if only under our breath—something about their upbringing. Perhaps it is because deep down we cherish the belief that by nature people are basically tender and sensitive.

Be that as it may, the Japanese character for thick depicts a child abandoned out on the wild cliffs, exposed to the heat of the sun, and thus doomed to develop a head and skin as thick as the parent who left it there. [9]

喝 喞 喩 喬

133

strange

奇

The elements we are given to work with here are St. Bernard dog and can. Lots of phrases pop to mind to attach these words to the key word, but they end up too abstract because of the word can.

It is important in such cases (and there will be plenty of them as we go along) to stick closely to the elements, in this case, mouth and nails. Now all we need do is create a fictitious “Strange But True” column in the Sunday funnies, featuring a St. Bernard whose mouth has been nailed shut because he was hitting the brandy keg around his neck too hard. [8]

営 嗚

134

stream

川

We have taken the image of a river stream over into English to describe things that fall down in straight lines, or ripple along in lines. All of this is more than evident in the kanji given here, a pictograph of a stream. [3]

嗜 嗟 嗣

As a primitive, this character adds to the meaning of stream the more vivid image of a flood. Note, however, that there are certain small changes in the writing of the element, depending on where it appears relative to other elements:

on the left, it is written 川

on the top, it is written 巛

on the bottom, it is written 

135

state

州

Here we see drops of land (little islets) rising up out of a stream, creating a kind of sandbar or breakwater. Ever wonder how the state-line is drawn between states separated by a river? If there were little drops of land as in the kanji, there’d be nothing to it. [6]

嗤 嗷 嗹 嗽 嗾 嘆

136

obey

順

In primitive language, this character would read stream . . . head. And that turns out to be convenient for remembering its meaning of obey. Either one obeys the person who is head of an organization or else obeys by following the stream of opinion (“current” practice, we call it). Both these senses come together in this kanji. [12].

嘸 噂 噌 噴

137

water

水

This character, which looks a bit like a snowflake, is actually a pictograph of water—not any particular body of water or movement of water, but simply the generic name for water. Should you have any difficulty remembering it, simply think of a walking stick being dropped vertically into the water, sending droplets out in all four directions. Then all you need to learn is how to write it in proper order. [4]

噸 噺 嚀 嚆

As a primitive, this character can keep its form, or it can be written with three drops to the left of another primitive, like this: 氵. This latter, as we will see, is far more common.

138

icicle

氷

The appearance of the primitive for water in its full form tells us that we have something to do with water here. The extra drop to the left, added as a second stroke, changes the picture from a splash caused by a walking stick dropped into water to form an icicle.

If it helps, when you hold an icicle up to the light, you can usually see little crystallizations of five-pointed stars inside of it, which is the shape we have in this kanji. [5]

嚇 嚊 嚏 嚔 嚠

139

eternity

永

This kanji also uses the full form of water, though its meaning seems to have nothing at all to do with water. Remember what William Blake said about seeing “infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour”? Well, reading this character from top to bottom, we see “eternity in a drop of water.” [5]

嚢 嚥 嚮 嚴 嚶

140

spring

泉

Call to mind the image of a fresh, bubbling spring of water, and you will probably notice how the top of the spring you are thinking of, the part where the “bubbling” goes on, is all white. Happily, the white is just where it should be, at the top, and the water is at the bottom. [9]

囃 囈 囎 囑 囓

We will keep this image of a spring when using this kanji as a primitive, but not without first drawing attention to a slight change that distinguishes the primitive from the kanji. The final 4 strokes (the element for water) are abbreviated to the three small drops that we learned earlier as the kanji for little, giving us: .

141

gland

腺

Dig into your flesh and pull out a lymph gland. Now give it a squeeze and watch a spring of lymph spout out of it. [13]

鮖 

142

meadow

原

Though the kanji is broad enough to embrace both meanings, the meadow you should imagine here is not a flatland plain but a mountain meadow in the Austrian Alps. (Perhaps the opening scene of “The Sound of Music” will help.) Simply think of little springs bubbling up across the meadow to form a sort of path that leads you right to the brink of a precipitous cliff. Now if you can see Schwester Maria skipping along merrily, dodging in and out of the springs, and then falling headlong over the cliff, you have a ridiculous story that should help fix this kanji in memory. [10]

囘 団 囱

143

petition

願

A meadow and a head are all we are given to work with in the kanji for petition. Since the key word already suggests something like a formal request made of some higher power, let us imagine a gigantic Wizard-of-Oz head located in the middle of the flowery meadow we used in the last frame. Then just picture people kneeling hopefully before it, petitioning for whatever it is they want. (The scarecrow wanted brains, the lion, courage, and the tin man a heart. What about you?) [19]

圉 土

144

swim

泳

The primitive to the left, you will recall from frame 137, represents water. To the right, we see the kanji for eternity. Knowing how much children like swimming, what could be a better image of eternal bliss than an endless expanse of water to swim in without a care in the world? [8]

在 圻

145

marsh

沼

Unlike the meadow with its cliffs, the marshlands are low and near a source of water that feeds them until they get soggy through and through. Why certain land becomes marshy is probably due to the fact that it felt thirsty, and so tried its best to seduce the water over to its side. But, like most inordinate seductions, the last state of the victim is worse than the first. Hence the slushy marsh. [8]

均 坑

146

open sea

沖

This kanji could hardly be simpler. The key word open sea readily suggests being out in the middle of a great body of water. Thinking of it in this way should avoid confusion with the kanji for “open,” which we will meet later on. [7]

坤 坪

147

pan-

汎

The sense of the key word here is the “all-inclusive” we find in terms like “Pan-American Games.” (It is also the character used in mathematics for “partial” as in partial differentials, in case you are a math major and want to take your story in that direction.) Instead of a water sports event that brings together the best talent, think of a meet of the region’s most mediocre athletes, many of whom cannot even tread water. Now try to find a sponsor for the “Pan-Mediocre Water Sports Competition.” [6]

鮗 

148

creek

江

Unlike the river, the ocean, the lake, and the pond, the creek is often no more then a dribble of water trickling down a small gully. While the geological history of the larger bodies of water is hard to surmise sometimes, all of us know from our childhood how creeks are made. You probably even dug one or two in your time. All you need to do is find a mainstream of water somewhere and dig a little path into dry land. The creek is thus a lesson in water-craft, as this kanji would agree. [6]

垈 垓

149

cleanse

汰

This character can mean both to cleanse and to make dirty. We will choose the latter and imagine someone who is displeasingly plump going to a skinny spa whose medicinal waters promise to cleanse him of his unwanted corpulence. Picture him sitting in the spa as the pounds melt away, leaving a greasy scum on top of the water. [7]

鮟 

150

soup

汁

To make soup, one begins with water and then starts adding things to it, often leftovers from the icebox. This is how the thick soup or stew called “seven-in-one” is made. This kanji does it three better, giving us a ten-ingredient soup. [5]

垣 垪

151

grains of sand

沙

We have already learned the kanji for sand (frame 122), so let’s use it to remember the character for grains of sand. Instead of the “few stones” that make for nice sand, here we have a few drops of water, one for each grain of sand—a beach in perfect ecological balance. [7]

鮠 

152

tide

潮

Before we get to explaining this character, take a look at it and see if you can figure out the primitive elements on your own…. On the left is the water—that much is easy. On the right we have only one primitive, the kanji for morning learned back in frame 53. See how an apparently complex kanji falls apart neatly into manageable pieces?

To get the meaning of the key word tide, just think of it in connection with the character for eventide that we learned back in frame 115. Here we have the morning-tide, its complement.

By the way, if you missed the question about the number of primitives, it is probably because you forgot what we said earlier about kanji becoming primitives, independently of the pieces that make them up. As a rule, look for the largest kanji you can write and proceed from there to primitives stranded on their own. [15]

垳 埜

153

source

源

With the advice of the last frame in mind, it is easy to see water and meadow in this character for source. Both in its etymology (it has a common parent with the word “surge”) and in popular usage, source suggests the place water comes from. In this kanji, it is under the meadow, where we just saw it breaking the surface in those bubbly little springs. [13]

埣 堊

154

lively

活

When we speak of a lively personality or a lively party, we immediately think of a lot of chatter. This kanji depicts the idea of lively by having tongues babble and splash around like flowing water. [9]

堙 堰

155

extinguish

消

Among the many things water is useful for is extinguishing fires, and that is just what we have here. First of all, take the water at the left as the drops of water that are used to depict water in general. In the best of all possible worlds, the most efficient way to extinguish a fire would be to see that each drop of water hits one spark of the conflagration. An unthinkable bit of utopian fire fighting, you say to yourself, but helpful for assigning this key word its primitives. [10]

堵 塑

156

but of course

況

This key word is a connector used to link contrasting phrases and sentences together with much the same flavor as the English phrase but of course. Just picture yourself ready to go off on your first date as a teenager, and having your mother grill you about your manners and ask you embarrassing questions about your hygiene. “Did you have a good shower?” “But of course…,” you reply, annoyed. So water and teenager combine to give us but of course. [8]

塗 塢

157

river

河

The character in this frame represents a step up from the stream we met in frame 134; it is a full-sized river. The water to the left tells us what we are dealing with, and the can at the right tells us that our “little engine that could” has now become amphibious and is chugging down the Mighty Mississip’ like a regular riverboat. [8]

塰 境

158

overnight

泊

When you stop at an inn for an overnight rest, all you expect is a bit of water for a wash and a set of clean white sheets to wrap your weary bones in. [8]

増 墫

159

lake

湖

Water . . . old . . . flesh. You have heard of legends of people being abandoned in the mountains when they had become too old to work. Well, here is a legend about people being set adrift in the waters of a stormy lake because their flesh had gotten too old to bear the burdens of life. [12]

墺 壇 壓

160

fathom

測

Connoting the measurement of the depth of water, the key word fathom begins with the water primitive. To its right, we see the compound-primitive for rule (frame 92) which we learned in the sense of a “ruler” or “measure.” Hence, when we rule water we fathom it. What could be simpler? But be careful; its simplicity is deceptive. Be sure to picture yourself fathoming a body of water several hundred feet deep by using a ruler of gargantuan proportions. [12]

壘 壮

161

soil

土

I don’t like it any more than you do, but this kanji is not the pictograph it is trumped up to be: a mound of soil piled on the ground. All I can recommend is that you memorize it as it is. Anyway, it will be occurring with such frequency that you have almost no chance of forgetting it, even if you try. [3]

壯 声 壱

As a primitive, the sense of soil is extended to that of ground because of its connection with the kanji for the same (frame 554). From there it also takes the added meanings of dirt and land.

162

spit

吐

We have here a rather small mouth (it is always compressed when set on the left) next to a much larger piece of dirt. It is not hard to imagine what you might do if you got a mouth full of dirt. As least I know what I would do: spit it out as fast and far as I could! [6]

壹 壼

163

pressure

圧

One of the things that causes the erosion of soil is the excessive pressure of the topsoil on the lower soil. This can be caused by any number of things from heavy rainfall to heavy buildings to the absence of sufficient deep-rooted vegetation to hold the layers together. Here we see a steep cliff without a tree in sight. The slightest pressure on it will cause a landslide, which, with a little help from your imagination, you will be able to see happening in this character. [5]

夂 夋

164

cape

埼

The cape pictured here is a jut of land like Cape Cod. The soil on the left tells us we have to do with land, and the strange on the right tells us it is a cape where unusual things go on. Put a haunted house on it, an eerie sky overhead, and a howling wind rustling through the trees, and you have yourself a picture of Cape Strange (or, if you prefer, Cape Odd). [11]

外 大

165

hedge

垣

The hedge depicted in this frame is not your ordinary run-of-the-suburbs shrubbery, but the miraculous hedge of briar roses that completely spanned the castle grounds in which Sleeping Beauty lay for a hundred years, so that none but her predestined beloved could find his way through it. [9]

夫 夳

166

inlay

填

When we hear the word inlay, we usually think of setting precious stones in pieces of jewelery, but the primitive elements here suggest truth being inlaid in the soil. You might think instead of the cosmic wisdom that inlaid the truth of the universe in the stuff of the earth. [13]

鮨 

167

squared jewel

圭

Now I am going to do something unusual. The character in this frame is going to get one meaning and the primitive another, with no relation at all between the two. In time, I hope you will see how helpful this is.

The kanji key word, squared jewel, depicts a mammoth precious stone, several feet high, made by piling up large heaps of soil on top of one another. Not something you would want to present your betrothed on your wedding day, but a good image for remembering this rare character, used chiefly in personal names nowadays. [6]

夸 夾 奄 奇 奈 奉

As a primitive, we shall use this character to mean ivy, that creepy vegetation that covers the surface of the ground to form a sort of “second” ground that can get somewhat tricky to walk on without tripping.

168

seal

封

Think of the key word seal as referring to a letter you have written and are preparing to close. Instead of using the traditional wax seal, you glue a sprig of ivy on the outside. In this way the elements ivy and glue give you a curious and memorable way to seal your secret letters. [9]

奔 奘

169

horizon

涯

After seeing a constant horizon of water, water everywhere for months at sea, could there be anything more delightful to the eyes than to look astern and see the ivy-clad cliffs of land on a new horizon? Of course, you’d need the eyes of a stellar telescope to recognize that the vegetation was in fact ivy, but the phrase “ivy-clad cliffs” has such a nice ring to it that we won’t worry about such details. [11]

奝 奢 奪

170

Buddhist temple

寺

You have heard of people “attaching” themselves to a particular sect? Here is your chance to take that metaphor literally and imagine some fellow walking into a Buddhist temple with a fervent resolve to attach himself to the place. Since there is plenty of unused land around the precincts, he simply picks out a suitable patch, brushes the soles of his feet with glue, steps down firmly, and so joins the Buddhist temple as a “permanent member.” [6]

女 好

171

time

時

“What is time?” asked St. Augustine in his memoirs. “Ask me not, and I know. Ask me, and I cannot tell you.” Here we have the kanji’s answer to that perennial riddle. Time is a sun rising over a Buddhist temple. It sounds almost like a Zen kōan whose repetition might yield some deep secret to the initiated. At any rate, imagining a monk seated in meditation pondering it might help us remember the character. [10]

妄 妛

172

level

均

The level this key word refers to is not the carpenter’s tool but rather the even surface of a thing. It pictures soil being scooped up into a ladle and then made level (apparently because one is measuring soil). The excess drops of soil are brushed off the top, which accounts for the added drop at the ladle’s edge. [7]

妤 妬 妲

173

fire

火

Just as sitting before a fire enlivens the imagination and lets you see almost anything you want to in the flames, this kanji is so simple it lets you see almost any sort of fire you want to see. It no longer makes a good pictograph, but I invite you to take a pencil and paper and play with the form—first writing it as shown below and then adding lines here and there—to see what you can come up with. Everything from matchbooks to cigarette lighters to volcanic eruptions to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found here. No doubt you, too, will find something interesting to bend your memory around these four simple strokes. [4]

妹 妺 妻 妾

To avoid confusion later on, it is best to keep to the meaning of a fireplace (or hearth) or a raging conflagration like a forest fire for this kanji’s primitive meaning. Another primitive element for fire, based on this one, is written 灬 and will mean flames, cauldron, cooking fire, or an oven fire.

174

inflammation

炎

A fire belongs in the hearth, not over it. When the fire spreads to the rest of the house, we have an inflamed house. And as with any inflammation—including those that attack our bodies—the danger is always that it might spread if not checked. This is the sense behind the reduplication of the element for fire, one atop the other [8]

姆 姉 始 姍 姑 姓 委 姙

175

anxiety

煩

The existential condition of anxiety that arises from the inevitable frustration of our worldly passions is contained in this character. The head is set afire, causing deep torment of spirit (and a whopper of a headache). [13]

姚 姜 姥 姦 娉

176

thin

淡

The primitives in this kanji read: water . . . inflammation. Taking inflammation in its medical sense, the first water-related inflammation that pops into mind is dehydration, the principal symptom of which is that it makes one shrivel up and look very, very thin. If that is hard to remember, try thinking it backwards: a very thin chap passes by and you imagine him suffering from (being inflamed with) dehydration (hence the element for water). [11]

娚 娶

177

lamp

灯

Since it is very hard to read by the fireplace without going blind from the flickering of the flames or burning up from the heat, our ancestors invented a way to nail down a bit of that fire, just enough to light up the text of their evening newspapers and no more. Voilà! The lamp. [6]

婆 婚

178

farm

畑

Looking at the primitives, a fireplace and a rice field, we find the essential ingredients for a farm: a warm hearth to sit by at night, and a well-plowed field to grow one’s crops in by day. [9]

婬 媼

179

disaster

災

Of all of nature’s disasters, this kanji picks out two of the worst: floods and fires. To recall the disposition of the elements, think of nature’s solution to nature’s own problem: a great flood pouring down over a great forest fire. [7]

媽 媾 嫁 嫌

180

ashes

灰

The kanji for ashes naturally includes the primitive for fire, or more specifically, a fireplace. Now what do you do with that bucket of ashes you have just cleaned out of the fireplace? You walk to the edge of a cliff and tip it upside down, watching as they are swept away in the wind like a swarm of gray mosquitoes. Thus the fire, once it has turned to ashes, ends up at the bottom of the cliff. [6]

嫖 嫦

181

spot

点

If you look into the flickering of a fire for a long time and then turn aside, you will see spots before your eyes. Although nobody ever thought of such a thing before—as least as far as I know, they didn’t—imagine using those spots as a technique for fortune-telling. The old witch sits before her cauldron and watches the spots that show up when she turns to look at you, and from that tells your fortune. Think of it as a kind of spot-check on your future. [9]

嬋 嬌 嬖 嬢 嬪

182

illuminate

照

Although the range of possible meanings that the kanji for illuminate can have is about as rich as the connotations of the English word, we need to focus on just one of them: to make something shine. If you glaze a pot and put it into the oven to fire it, you in fact illuminate it. Hence the kanji for illuminate compares the kanji for shining with the primitive element for the oven’s fire. [13]

嬶 子 孖

183

fish

魚

The composition of this kanji shows three elements, which we list in the order of their writing: bound up . . . rice field . . . cooking fire. Not much to work with at first sight. But we can join them together by thinking of a three-part story: first a fish is caught and bound up on a line with its unfortunate school-mates; when the fisherman gets home, he cuts off the head and tosses it, with the entrails, out into the rice fields for fertilizer; and the rest he sets in a skillet over a cooking fire for his supper. [11]

料 斤 斬

184

fishing

漁

To the story we have just made about fish, this kanji for the profession of fishing adds yet another element before the others: namely the water, where the fish was happily at home before being caught, disemboweled, and eaten. Be sure to get a clear image of the water when you put it all together. [14]

新 旌

185

ri

里

That’s right—a ri. Don’t bother looking it up in your English dictionary; it’s a Japanese word for measuring distances. One ri is about 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles. The kanji depicts how the measure came to be used. Atop we see the rice field, and below the element for land. Those four sections you see in the rice field (and which we made mention of when first we introduced the character in frame 14) are actually measurements of land, much the same as farm-sections in the United States have given us the notion of a “country mile.” The land division based on the size of a rice field is called a ri. [7]

字 存 孚 孛 孜 孝 孟

To get a more concrete primitive meaning for this kanji, we shall refer to it as a computer, a meaning deriving from the kanji for logic, which we will meet in Lesson 12.

186

black

黒

Like most things electrical, a computer, too, can overheat. Just imagine flames pouring out of it and charring the keyboard, the monitor, and your desk a sooty black color. [11]

孵 學

187

black ink

墨

Besides meaning black ink, this kanji also appears in the word for an inked string that is pulled taut and snapped to mark a surface, much the same as one might used a chalked string. Here it is used to mark off the dirt with black lines for a football game (played, I presume, on a white field). [14]

宏 官

188

carp

鯉

These are the same carp you see in Japanese “carp streamers.” Only here we find a small home computer or two strung on the line by a father anxious for his son not only to have the courage and determination of a carp swimming upstream, but also the efficiency and memory of a computer. Ugh. [18]

宨 宸

189

quantity

量

Think of quantity as having to do with measuring time and distance, and the rest is simple: you have a quantity of time in the new day that begins with nightbreak, and a quantity of distance in the rural ri. [12]

寂 寃 寐

190

rin

厘

No doubt you will find it in your heart to forgive me for forcing yet another Japanese word on you in this frame. It is not the last time it will happen in this book, but I can assure you they are used only when absolutely necessary.

One rin is equal to about 1/1000 of a yen—or rather was worth that much when it still made economic sense to mint them. While inflation took its toll on this kanji as a monetary unit, it survived with the not at all surprising sense of something “very, very tiny.”

The kanji shows a cliff with a computer under it, apparently because it has been pushed over into the abyss by someone fed up with the thing. The total market value of one home computer that has fallen over rock and bramble for several hundred feet: about one rin! [9]

寓 寡

191

bury

埋

When we speak of burying something (or someone, for that matter), we usually mean putting them under ground. Only here, we are burying our beloved computer that has served us so well these past years. Behind us a choir chants the “Dies irae, dies illa” and there is much wailing and grief among the bystanders as they pass by to shovel a little dirt into what will be its final resting place. R.I.P. [10]

寥 寮

*

hood

冂

In addition to the basic meaning of hood, this shape can be used for a glass canopy, such as that used to serve “pheasant under glass.” Note its difference from the element for wind: the second stroke is hooked inwards here. To help remember this detail, think of the wind as blowing “out” and a glass canopy as keeping something “in.” Among the related images suggested by this primitive are: a monk’s cowl, a riding hood, a helmet, and an automobile hood. [2]

寰 寳

192

same

同

The primitives given are one and mouth under a hood. Take the key word to connote the sameness that characterizes the life in a community of monks. They all have the same habits, including the “habit” they wear on their backs. Here we see the monk’s cowl, drawn down over the eyes so that all you can see when you look at him is a mouth. But since monks also speak their prayers in common, it is but a short step to think of one mouth under a hood as the kanji for the sameness of monastic life. [6]

寶 寸 寿

As a primitive, this kanji will mean monks dressed in a common habit.

193

den

洞

The key word den refers to an animal lair hollowed out in the side of a mountain. Now if we keep to the image of the monastic life as an image for same, we can picture a den of wild beasts dressed up in habits and living the common life in a mountain cavern. To bring in the element of water we need only give them a sacred “puddle” in the center of their den, the focus of all their pious attentions. [9]

射 尊

194

trunk

胴

The word trunk refers to the part of the body that is left when you have “truncated” all the limbs. I can hardly think of any reason for doing so, unless one were lumberjacking corpses and needed to have them all properly pruned and made the same so they could be floated downstream without causing a body-jam. [10]

小 尠

195

yonder

向

Something referred to as “over yonder” is usually far off in the distance and barely within sight—like a wee drop in the distance—and is usually an expression used in giving directions or pointing something out. Hence this kanji begins with a drop. Then we find a sort of transparent helmet with no eyes or nose, but only a prominent mouth under it, obviously an extraterrestrial. And what is it jabbering on about with its mouth open like that? Why, about his spaceship way over yonder with its fuel tank on empty. [6]

尢 尨 尸

196

esteem

尚

Above we see the primitive for little attached to one of those glass canopies you might use to display a family heirloom. The littleness is important, because what is in fact on display is the shrunken, stuffed, and mounted mouth of an esteemed ancestor. We may be used to esteeming the words our forebears leave behind, but here we also esteem the very mouth that spoke them. I leave it to you to imagine a suitable place in your room for displaying such an unusual conversation piece. [8]

尻 尽 局

*

house

宀

This extremely useful primitive element depicts the roof of a house. You can see the chimney at the top and the eaves on either side without much trouble. It is a “crown” element, which means that it is invariably set atop other things. Examples follow immediately. [3]

屁 居 屆

197

character

字

Here is the character for character itself. Not just kanji, but any written character from hieroglyphs to Sanskrit to our own Roman alphabet. It shows us simply a child in a house. But let us take advantage of the double meaning of the key word to note that just as a child born to a Japanese house is given characters for its name, so it is also stamped with the character of those who raise it from infancy on. [6]

屈 届 屋 屍 屎 屏

198

guard

守

The notion of guarding something easily brings to mind the image of someone standing guard, like the royal soldiers in front of Buckingham Palace or the Pope’s Swiss Guard. The whole idea of hiring guards is that they should stick like glue to your house to protect it from unwanted prowlers. So go ahead and glue a guard to your house in imagination. [6]

屓 屠

199

perfect

完

In order not to confuse the key word perfect with others nearly synonymous in meaning, pull it apart to have a look at its native Latin roots. Per-factum suggests something so “thoroughly made or done” that nothing more needs to be added to it. Now look at the kanji, which does something similar. We see a house that has been made perfectly from its beginnings in the foundation to the roof on the top. Now return to frame 101 and make sure not to confuse this key word with the kanji for complete. [7]

履 山

200

proclaim

宣

Under the primitive for house we meet the kanji for span. Think of the key word in its religious sense of missionary preaching: “proclaiming the good news to all nations” and “shouting it from the housetops.” That should be enough to help you remember this simple kanji, used in fact both for traditional missionary work as well as for one of its contemporary replacements: advertising. [9]

岌 岨

201

wee hours

宵

As the key word hints, the kanji in this frame refers to the late evening or early morning hours, well after one should be in bed asleep. It does this by picturing a house with a candle in it. The reason is obvious: whoever is living there is “burning the candle at both ends,” and working night after night into the wee hours. [10]

岬 岻

202

relax

安

To be told that the place of the woman is in the house may not sit well with modern thought, but like all cultural habits the Chinese characters bear the birthmarks of their age. So indulge yourself in a Norman Rockwell image of relaxing after a hard day’s work: the scruffy and weary woman of the house slouched asleep in the living room chair, her hair in curlers and a duster lying in her lap. [6]

峅 峠

203

banquet

宴

To carry on from the last frame, we note the entire day of work that comes between a woman and her house in preparing for a dinner banquet, pictorially “interrupting” her relaxation. [10]

峩 峰 峺

204

draw near

寄

Let the idea of drawing near suggest something dangerous or eerie that one approaches with fear and trembling. Here we see a strange house—perhaps the haunted House of Usher that Edgar Allen Poe immortalized, or the enchanted Gingerbread House that lured Hansel and Gretel to draw near. [11]

崇 崘

205

wealth

富

Here we have the original character on which the primitive element for wealth is based. In keeping with the story introduced back then, note how all the wealth is kept under the roof of the same house. [12]

崛 嵐

206

savings

貯

To avoid confusing this frame with the last one, try to think of savings as actual money. The only difference is that our currency is not paper bills but shells, a not uncommon unit of exchange in older civilizations. The nail under the roof of the house points to a hiding place in the rafters on which one strings up one’s shells for safekeeping. [12]

嶄 嶌 嶝

207

tree

木

Here we see a pictograph of a tree, showing the main trunk in the long vertical stroke and the boughs in the long horizontal stroke. The final two strokes sweep down in both directions to indicate the roots. Although it may look similar at first sight to the kanji for water (frame 137), the order in which it is written is completely different and this affects its final appearance. [4]

嵒 嵓 嵜 嵩

As a primitive, this kanji can mean tree or wood. When the last two strokes are detached from the trunk (), we shall change its meaning to pole, or wooden pole.

208

grove

林

Learn this frame in connection with the next one. A grove is a small cluster of trees. Hence the simple reduplication of the kanji for tree gives us the grove. [8]

嶢 嶬 嶮 嶷 嶼

209

forest

森

A forest is a large expanse of trees, or “trees, trees everywhere,” to adopt the expression we used back in frames 22 and 23. [12]

巍 巖 巡

210

Japanese Judas-tree

桂

Unless you are a botanist, you are not likely to know what a Japanese Judas-tree looks like, and probably never even heard of it before, but the name is sufficiently odd to make remembering it easy. Using the primitives as our guide, we define it as a tree with ivy growing down its branches in the shape of a hangman’s rope. [10]

巧 巳

211

oak

柏

This kanji calls to mind the famous myth of the “golden bough.” As you may recall, what made the sacred oak in the forest of Diana the Huntress outside of Rome “golden” were the white berries of the mistletoe that grew in the branches of the tree. When the light of the sun shone through them, they turned yellow and the branch to which they clung appeared to be made of gold. (If you don’t know the story, take a break today and hunt it down in a dictionary of myth and fable. Even if you forget the kanji—which, of course, you won’t—the story of the mistletoe and the fate it brought to Balder the Beautiful is one you are sure to remember.) [9]

巻 帆

212

frame

枠

You might think of the frame this character refers to as the sort of frame we have created by drawing a dark line around this kanji and its explanation. Then think of that line as made of very thin wood; and finally note how each time the line bends it forms a 90° angle, thus giving us the nine and the ten. [8]

帖 帚 帝

213

treetops

梢

As the days grow shorter and shorter, or so the northern European myth goes, the fear grows that the sun will take its leave of us altogether, abandoning the world to total darkness. Fixing candles to the branches of evergreen trees, it was believed, would lure the sun back (like things attracting like things), whence the custom of the lighted tree that eventually found its way into our Christmas customs. The story is a lot longer and more complex than that, but it should help to fix the image of climbing high up into the treetops to fix candles on the tree. [11]

帯 幀

214

shelf

棚

One often thinks of books as “good companions,” but here it is the shelf we store them on that is the companion. The reasons should be obvious: it is made of the same stuff, wood, and spends a lot more time with them than we do! Here again, be careful not to let the rationality of the explanation get in the way before you turn it into a proper story. [12]

幇 幢

215

apricot

杏

Since apricots can be eaten just as they fall from the trees, picture this mouth agape at the bottom of a tree (just as the elements have it), waiting for apricots to fall into it. [7]

平 并

216

paulownia

桐

Since you probably don’t know what a paulownia tree is, we shall let the key word suggest the phrase “the Little Brothers of St. Paulownia.” It is a short step to associate the tree with the monks to its right. (For the curious, the name of this oriental tree really comes from a Russian princess, Anna Pavlovna.) [10]

幻 広

217

plant

植

You have no doubt seen how people practicing the Japanese art of bonsai take those helpless little saplings and twist them into crippled dwarves before they have a chance to grow up as they should. The more proper way to plant a young tree and give it a fair shake in life is to set it into the earth in such a way that it can grow up straight—and straightaway. [12]

序 座

218

chair

椅

Instead of making a chair out of wood from a tree, this kanji has us making the whole tree into a chair, which looks most strange sitting in your living room where the sofa used to be. [12]

鮪 

219

wither

枯

What makes a tree begin to wither up, and perhaps even die, is a kind of arteriosclerosis that keeps its sap from flowing freely. Usually this is due to simple old age, as this character shows us. Be sure to picture a wrinkled old tree, withering away in a retirement center so that the commonsense explanation does not take over. [9]

庶 廃

220

crude

朴

As all magicians who have passed their apprenticeship know, one makes one’s wand out of a hazel branch and is careful not to alter the natural form of the wood. For the magic of the wand derives its power from its association with the hidden laws of nature, and needs therefore to be kept in its crude, natural state. [6]

廏 廓

221

town

村

The character for village was associated with rice fields (frame 96). That for town, a step up on the evolutionary path to cities, shows a circle of trees glued together to measure off the confines of a town. [7]

廝 廡

222

inter-

相

The prefix inter- stirs up associations of cooperation among people. From there we read off the elements: tree . . . eye. With only a slight leap of the imagination, those two words call to mind the scriptural proverb about first taking the block of timber out of one’s own eye before helping your neighbors remove the splinters in their eyes. What more useful rule for inter-human relationships, and what more useful tool for remembering this kanji! [9]

廩 廴

223

desk

机

We need to fix imagination here on two things to learn the kanji for desk: the wonderful rough wood of which it has been hewn and the wind that blows across it, sending your papers flying all over the room. These two elements, written in that order, dictate how to write the character. [6]

建 廼

224

book

本

Recalling that books are made of paper, and paper made of trees, one might think of a book as a slice of a tree. Can you see the “cross-cut” in the trunk of the tree? Picture it as a chain-saw cutting you out a few books with which to start your own private library. [5]

弃 弄

225

tag

札

The tags you see hanging on trees in public places in Japan are helpful to identify what sort of trees they are. Next time you see one, imagine the bit of wire that fixes the tag to the branch as a large fishhook. really imagine it, illogical as it is, and you will never have trouble with this kanji again. [5]

弌 弍

226

calendar

暦

Look at this character in reverse order, from bottom up. First we see the primitive for days, an appropriate enough way to begin a calendar. Next we see a grove of trees growing under a cliff. The laws of nature being what they are, the trees would be stunted under such conditions, unless they were strong enough to keep growing upwards until they passed through the layers of rock and soil, right up to the surface. Now imagine that in those little boxes marking off the days on your wall calendar, you see that very process taking place step by step: 365 or so time-lapse pictures of that grove of trees each month, from January under the cliff to December on top of the cliff. The story is not as complex as it sounds, particularly if you happen to have a calendar nearby and can flip through it with this image in mind. [14]

弐 弛 弦

227

plan

案

Without much effort, the elements relax . . . tree suggest a hammock strung between two trees in your backyard, and you stretched out in it, hands folded behind your head, planning something or other. After all, it’s something we all do from time to time: kick up our legs on the nearest piece of furniture and daydream about the best plan of action to take. Be sure to relate the relaxation to the tree, so that you don’t end up with something else in its place (like “legs” or “desk” or “table”). [10]

弱 弼

228

parch

燥

Parchment, made from animal skins, was the most common form of writing material used until the beginning of the nineteenth century. When paper took over, a method was devised to make artificial parchment from wood pulp. The fire at the left and in the “strong” position reminds us of the root word, “parch,” since nothing dries, puckers, wrinkles, and scorches quite like fire. And here is how we put it all together. Take a sheet of paper (a “wood-good,”), wet it, and hold it over a hearth in your mind’s eye. Now watch as it parches the paper, leaving it with a strange and bumpy surface resembling parchment. [17]

彈 彜 彦

229

not yet

未

As the key word suggests, this kanji has to do with something not quite over and done with. More concretely, it shows us a tree that is not yet fully grown. The extra short stroke in the upper branches shows new branches spreading out, leaving one with the feeling that the tree has a ways to go yet before it reaches maturity. In other words, the kanji conveys its meaning pictographically, playing on the earlier pictograph of the tree. [5]

彧 彩 彪 彫 彬

230

extremity

末

This character is best learned in connection with that of the previous frame. The first stroke shows a branch that is longer than the main branch, indicating that the tree has reached the extremity of its growth, so that its branches stop spreading and start drooping downwards. Be sure to keep this imagery in mind, to avoid confusing this key word with synonyms that will appear later. [5]

彭 彰 影 彳 彷

231

obscure

昧

The most obscure ideas are those that the sun of reason has not yet dawned on. Be sure to give the sun a professorial demeanor, complete with spectacles and a pipe. [9]

鮭 

232

splash

沫

The splash this kanji refers to is the dash of water against the rocks, with all the foam and spray that this creates. If you think of a splash in this sense as a wave that has run its full course and reached its extremity, namely the seashore, and if you think of it pictorially in your mind’s eye, this somewhat rare (but oh-so-easy-to-learn) kanji is yours for good. [8]

彿 径

233

flavor

味

When a tree has not yet finished growing, it produces fruit with a full flavor. When the official taster (the professional mouth to the left) determines that full flavor has been reached, the tree is pruned back so that it remains permanently not yet grown. A neat little agricultural trick and an easy way to see the sense of flavor hidden in this character. [8]

很 徑

234

younger sister

妹

The younger sister in the family is the woman in the family who, like the newest branch in a tree, is not yet old enough or mature enough to do everything the elder sister can do (see frame 442). [8]

得 御

235

vermilion

朱

That red-orange color we call vermilion is found in nature during the fall when the leaves lose their sugar and begin to change color. This kanji depicts the very last leaf on a tree in the fall (the drop hung in the first stroke), the leaf that has not yet fallen as it one day must. Look at its color—vermilion. (Well, not really. The truth is, vermilion is made from a mercuric sulfide, but I’m sure you will agree that autumn leaves are a lot easier to work with.) [6]

徨 復 循 徭 微 徳

236

stocks

株

The stocks bought and sold on the market by the tens of millions each day get their name from a comparison to a healthy tree, in which one takes “stock” in the hopes that it will grow and produce more and more trees like itself. Usually good stocks are referred to as “blue chip,” but here we are asked to associate the key word with the color vermilion, perhaps because one can assess the value of a tree from the color of its autumn leaves. [10]

徼 忖

*

flower

艹

We are not yet equipped with all the pieces necessary to learn the character for flower, so shall have to content ourselves here with the first three strokes, which represent the primitive of the same meaning. Concentrate on the actual “bloom” of the flower, and keep a particular flower in mind. Try a rose, a tulip, or a daisy, since none of them will have their own kanji. Think about it well, since once you have decided on your flower of choice, you will be using it in a rather large number of stories later on. [3]

志 忘 忙

237

young

若

Here we see a flower held in the right hand. You can imagine yourself in a magic garden where flowers picked with the right hand grant eternal youth; and those picked with the left, premature senility. Go ahead, pick one with each hand and watch what happens. [8]

応 忝 忞 忠 忤 忱

238

grass

草

Perhaps you know the custom of seeding grass randomly or in some particular pattern with the flower called the crocus, which blooms for a few days each year in early spring. As the grass begins to turn green again after winter has passed, these tiny flowers dot up here and there. Now just look out your window at a patch of grass somewhere and think what a nice idea it would be to have your name spelled out in flowers once as a sort of early harbinger of spring. [9]

忻 怒

239